Shadow Unit - 2 05 Wind-Up Boogeyman

There's a serial killer UNSUB gamma in East Buttfuck Missouri.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.shadowunit.org/boogeyman.html

Book Of Secrets - Chris Roberson

The Book of Secrets starts out with a journalist deciding to pursue a story about a wealthy recluse, and gets progressively odder from there, to the point where you have pretty much ended up in something Simon R. Green might have come up with, Nightside style. Thanks to the title object, that is. Being a vaguely hardboiled journo, he likes the booze, of course.

His grandfather has also died, and left him a box of papers - which includes multiple adventures of a hero called The Black Hand - from the era of The Shadow, the Lone Ranger, pirates, highwaymen and more. Always a Black Hand, though, even if not as consistent as The Phantom down through the ages. Excerpts of these different styles of adventurers and stories are actually presented in the novel, which is fun.

The story only takes a week in novel time, and that is how it is broken down, day by day, as the protagonist tours Texas, Nevada, and Arizona looking into the mysterious book.

Flashbacks happen to his childhood, how he felt about his family, why he is where he is, the training his grandfather inflicted upon him from his point of view.

Throw in a mafia auction, and the weird accelerates from there, as, well, the secrets of the Book in the title are revealed.

The book mystery part is perhaps not as successful as the homage to the pulp adventurer family. Overall a solid book.


3.5 out of 5

X-Men - The Chaos Engine Trilogy

An omnibus of the entire X-Men Chaos Engine trilogy.

The first of the Chaos Engine trilogy.

The X-Men are with Roma and her underling, when the aforementioned notices something very wrong with the 616 Earth and surrounds, and it is centred on Psylocke, or Betsy Braddock.

The X-Men, sans Xavier are sent to investigate, and given a deadline of a week, or she wipes out that particular Earth instance and surrounding dimension.

Arriving, Westchester County has a prison camp, not a school for gifted mutants, and Von Doom is King of the World, with Storm his Queen. The only real resistance - is run by Magneto.

Doom has co-opted or destroyed most of the heroes and villains, so the X-Men are an unexpected wild card force thrown into his plans.

Quite good, I thought. Alternate history sort of story with different lives for some in this dystopia.

4 out of 5


The second book of the Chaos Engine trilogy finds Betsy Braddock and Professor Xavier desperately trying to come up with a solution that will stop Roma from having to destroy the 616 dimension and others that problems may spread to.

Magneto through the use of this unstable cosmic cube has remade the world as to how he wants it, his dead daughter and wife back alive.

His world is much nicer and far more utopian than Von Doom's fascist horror from the previous novel, so Xavier having to convince his old friend Erik to let it be destroyed because it isn't real, for the good of billions in other universe.

Then there's another nasty lurking around in the form of The Controller.

This isn't as good as the first, but still solid. Will also fill you in on bits and pieces of X-Men history at this point in time.

3.5 out of 5


The third of the Chaos Engine trilogy.

Rather sensibly, the Red Skull is used as the third villain. As, for a novel, he is really not that interesting, being a garden variety megalomaniac nazi butcher. Even if he has a funny red head.

Doom is attempting to take over the Omniverse, Magneto is a prisoner.

When the Earth variants of the X-Men start to take over or be made aware of the situation they are in in the bodies on this cube created Earth, we end up with a heroes vs bad guys and bad guys vs bad guys situation. With the Captain Britain Corps, too.

Heaps of explanation of the previous two books too, so this one is a bit longer. Fans could probably pick this up and work out what is going on easily enough.

3 out of 5





3.5 out of 5

X-Men - Chaos Engine 3 Red Skull

The third of the Chaos Engine trilogy.

Rather sensibly, the Red Skull is used as the third villain. As, for a novel, he is really not that interesting, being a garden variety megalomaniac nazi butcher. Even if he has a funny red head.

Doom is attempting to take over the Omniverse, Magneto is a prisoner.

When the Earth variants of the X-Men start to take over or be made aware of the situation they are in in the bodies on this cube created Earth, we end up with a heroes vs bad guys and bad guys vs bad guys situation. With the Captain Britain Corps, too.

Heaps of explanation of the previous two books too, so this one is a bit longer. Fans could probably pick this up and work out what is going on easily enough.


3 out of 5

Drenai - Druss' Call To Arms at Dross Delnoch

From the David Gemmell Awards Ceremony.


5 out of 5

http://www.frequency-response.com/audio/DGLA_Chapter1_James_Barclay.mp3

Marla Mason - Bone Shop 3

Knives work. Dunno about this magic stuff.


3.5 out of 5

http://marlamason.net/boneshop/chapter3.html

Shadow Unit - 2 04 Getaway

One busted, Chaz, one ex-high school girl, one bad guy.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.shadowunit.org/getaway.html

X-Men - Chaos Engine 2 Magneto

The second book of the Chaos Engine trilogy finds Betsy Braddock and Professor Xavier desperately trying to come up with a solution that will stop Roma from having to destroy the 616 dimension and others that problems may spread to.

Magneto through the use of this unstable cosmic cube has remade the world as to how he wants it, his dead daughter and wife back alive.

His world is much nicer and far more utopian than Von Doom's fascist horror from the previous novel, so Xavier having to convince his old friend Erik to let it be destroyed because it isn't real, for the good of billions in other universe.

Then there's another nasty lurking around in the form of The Controller.

This isn't as good as the first, but still solid. Will also fill you in on bits and pieces of X-Men history at this point in time.


3.5 out of 5

Unique - The Qualia Engine

Grandchildren Of The Atom not so smart, but more quantum.


4 out of 5

Queen and Country - 2 Private Wars

The second Queen and Country novel.

Tara Chace has quit after discovering she is pregnant with her dead lover and former colleague's child.

Machinations in SIS over leadership positions and the upcoming change of leadership in Uzbekistan with an ailing president draw her back into the game in a rather dodgy mission.

However, she is back to doing what she does best, while the SIS Director Of Operations fights to work out what is going on, keep them their jobs, and find out who the hell is playing who on his own side, as well as the Americans. Plus a little matter of some lost munitions.

Then there's a little boy to save, and keeping herself alive so her own daughter has a parent.

Another absorbing spy thriller from Rucka.


4 out 5

Queen and Country - A Gentleman's Game

A Queen and Country novel.

An Islamic terrorist attack kills several hundred people on London's Underground, so, of course, the government wants payback. Their target is the religious inspirational head of the particular group responsible. Special Operations is tasked to put together a plan to assassinate him, and Minder One, Tara Chace, wants the job. Trouble is, she has to do it Yemen.

The mission leads to complications, and a three way tangle between the CIA, MI5, Mossad with Special Operations and Chace's head literally in the middle.

The only way out is to remove the terrorist group in question's base of operations in terminal fashion.

A well done superspy thriller.


4 out of 5

Amtor - War On Venus

The men of the flagship were all at their stations. The great fleet moved steadily forward in perfect formation. It was battle formation all right and I knew that a battle must be impending, but I could see no enemy; and as no one was paying any attention to me, I went up to the bridge to get a better view of what was going on and to see if I could locate an enemy. There were officers and signalmen there, sending and receiving messages. There were four t-ray guns mounted on the bridge, each with its complement of three gunners; so that the bridge, while large, was pretty well crowded, and certainly no place for a sightseer, and I was surprised that they permitted me to remain; but I later learned that it was on Danlot's orders that I was given free run of the ship, on the theory that if I were a spy, I would eventually convict myself by some overt act. "Have you ever been in a battle between lantar fleets?" one of the officers asked me. "No," I replied; "I never saw a lantar until today." "If I were you, then, I'd go below," he said. "This is the most dangerous place on the ship. In all probability more than half of us will be killed before the battle is over." As he ceased speaking I heard a whistling sound that rose to a long drawn out shriek and ended in a terrific detonation, as a bomb exploded a couple of hundred yars ahead of the flagship. Instantly the big guns of the battleship spoke in unison. The battle was on.


3.5 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300191h.html

Amtor - The Living Dead

"There are neither males nor females among them; but more or less periodically, usually after enjoying an orgy of eating and drinking, they divide into two parts, like the amoeba and other of the Rhizopada. Each of these parts grows another half during a period of several months, and the process continues. Eventually, the older halves wear out and die; sometimes immediately after the division and sometimes while still attached, in which case the dead half merely falls away, and the remaining half is carted off to make itself whole."


3 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300191h.html

Amtor - Goddess Of Fire

"Is Loto-El-Ho-Ganja your vadjong?" I asked. Vadjong means queen. "No," he said, "she is not a woman; she is more than a woman. She was not born of woman, nor did she ever hang from any plant." "Does she look like a woman?" I asked. "Yes," he replied, "but her beauty is so transcendent that mortal women appear as beasts by comparison."


2.5 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300191h.html

Amtor - Slaves Of the Fishmen

"I've whipped slaves to death before," boasted the fellow, "and I can whip this one to death;" then he rushed at me with upraised whip. I whipped out my pistol, the r-ray pistol that destroys flesh and bone; and let him have it. There was no smoke, nothing visible; just a sharp, staccato buzz; then there was a great hole in the center of the fellow's face; and he sprawled forward, dead.


3.5 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300191h.html

Slaine - 1 Slaine the Exile

An episodic sword and sorcery novel, adapted from some of the material in 2000 AD over the decades. Having first come across Slaine there in the eighties, it was certainly a surprise to discover a novel - and a pleasant one, along with all the other 2000 AD novels.

The beginning shows Slaine as a youth, growing up in his clan - and an evolving enmity with another kid who also fancies himself as a future elite warrior.

There is perhaps a bit much time spent on this kid-era setup of betrayal and 'Exile', until you learn that this was supposed to be a trilogy that never eventuated. A standalone would probably have had that element reduced I'd imagine.

It does highlight Slaine's relationship with the Earth Goddess Danu in her three guises, Mother, Maiden, Crone, and his evolving berserk 'warp spasm' power. In fact, the three facets of the goddess are the three sections of the novel, in that order.

Killing warriors that attack him is ok by the king, if justified. Messing around with the royal spousal unit, not so much. Hence Exile, and some wandering adventures.

These are generally in pursuit of the skull-sword warriors who raided his town and slaughtered many. In the process he learns of a dark sorcerer who is corrupting the Earth power along the ley lines for his own uses. Plenty of human sacrifice and all that sort of thing. Wicker men, even. Slaine takes a dim view of this corruption of the innocent, and like all good sword and sorcery heroes takes the view that 'kill them all' is the appropriate response to evil sorcerers and their bestial minions.

Slaine's major problem is that he certainly isn't as smart as Conan and company in general, and is easily blindsided, being rather reliant on the whole superstrength rip you limb from limb Mr. Hyde type action his warp spasm can produce.

In one of the stories, while in prison he makes a friend - the dwarf Ukko. A dodgy chancer, who is definitely a bit cleverer than the big berserk barbarian.

Things get grimmer and crazier as they make their way into the Drune sorcery infested territory of Slough Feg. Naked evil priestess martial artists, zombies, flying ships, that sort of thing.

A pretty decent book. Those interested in sword and sorcery style stories, or Celtic mythos fantasy of the less gowns and garlands variety could happily give this a shot. Because Slaine has an axe named Brainbiter.


3.5 out of 5

Update - Slaine

Apparently there is a second book! The author, Steven Savile says it was the last book Black Flame did before they stopped publishing, so very hard and expensive to get, unfortunately.

The title is Defiler.

Marla Mason - Bone Shop 2

"No touching the girls without their permission," said Artie Mann strolling out of -- where, exactly? The middle of the street? But she hadn't seen him there. He wore the same untucked Hawaiian shirt, and had perhaps the same fat cigar in his mouth. "That rule applies inside and outside the club."

"Get lost," the best man said, still staring at Marla. "This doesn't have shit to do with you."

"Okay," Artie said, and sucked on his cigar, making the end glow redly. Then he flicked the ashes toward the best man --

-- and the ash somehow swelled into a fist-sized fireball that struck him in the chest, knocking him down. His friends jumped back, and the best man screamed, beating at his shirt, which was singed and smoking. The men all looked at Artie, who took another long pull on his cigar, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.... and kept exhaling, smoke thick as fog, great rolling gouts of it, and when the smoke touched them, the men dropped to their knees, gagging.

Artie walked over to Marla, put his hand on her shoulder, and said, "I'll walk you home, kid."


4 out of 5

http://marlamason.net/boneshop/chapter2.html

Unique - Black and White

"“I just did. Play nice with the fanatic, Jetster. The vids will be recording. Just let Wurtham be all insane and bug-eyed and ranting about humans first. You be the demure superheroine who modestly saved New Chicago no less than two times this calendar year alone. Oh,” Meteorite added, “PR says no cowl for the show. Too intimidating. You’re to appear with your hood back, hair gleaming. Ponytail or braid; your choice. Light makeup–nothing sluttish. And no perfume, so be sure to catch a shower before you go.”

Jet hated election years."


3 out of 5

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/display.pperl?isbn=9780553386318&view=excerpt&ref=news&name=spectrapulse

Unique - Fearless Space Pirates Of the Outer Rings

No human bosses, so now superheroes.


4 out of 5

Marla Mason - Bone Shop 1

"Okay, so that leaves fire. My dad always said 'find what you love and do it for life,' but he sold fucking insurance, so who was he fooling? Maybe I could get a job as an arsonist. You know, burn places down for insurance money? I could join the... mob or whatever. I mean, I set fires anyway. Might as well get paid for it."


3.5 out of 5

http://marlamason.net/boneshop/chapter1.html

Repairman Jack - Interlude At Duane's

Ice cream bad mood deli rescue.


3.5 out of 5

Solar - 2 Dead Friends

"“Jo! Wake up, honey. We need you to map us to your body! Can you do that? In your present…condition, I mean?”

“Dead, you mean? In this body, you mean?” The Body smiled and nodded. “Gimme the map.”"


3.5 out of 5

http://deadchannel.writtenpixel.com/read.php?id=64&page=all

Solar - 1 The Bar Of Puppets

"Julie had to admit, it did seem pretty obvious. If you find yourself in the employ of a young/old sorcerer, and he sends you two counties deep into the sticks to some hick bar because he senses some kind of weird magickal disturbance, and asks you to find the resident thaumaturge and put a boot on him, well, the mumbly old guy in the corner would be candidate number one. He was even drinking red wine. Every damn wino sorcerer Julie has ever known hit the red. Nasty."


3.5 out of 5

http://deadchannel.writtenpixel.com/read.php?id=47&page=all

Superhero Girl - Jessica Lee

Cancer a tough villain.


3 out of 5

http://www.darkfantasy.org/fantasy/?p=2471

Tales Of the Shadowmen - 2 19 Annus Mirabilis

Doctor Omega meets Einstein.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.chrisroberson.net/2009/06/free-fiction-annus-mirabilis.html

King Arthur - Destroyer Of Worlds Prologue

""Reason is overrated." Hunter pours himself a goblet of fruity wine and downs it in one. "What's the point in sitting on your arse and ruminating on the logic of what is, by any rational person's yardstick, complete bug-eyed, screaming craziness? Life's for living. When some git's swinging an axe at your head, or a woman is pressing her lips against yours, you feel it and you react. You start reasoning about either one, you're a dead man." He pours himself another goblet of wine, drinks it quickly.

"Your drinking is a mask, like mine," Math notes wryly.

"We're just two peas in a pod.""


4 out of 5

http://www.markchadbourn.net/latest.htm

Wild Cards - 20 Suicide Kings On the Lualaba River Congo

Iron skin not treated well by crocodile teeth.


3 out of 5

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/wc-s.html

Unique - Norse Code

California Ragnarok.

Which, I suppose, is what you have to buy if you are going to be interested in this book. Recruited valkyries, secret organisations tracking such, and minor godlings. Plus trolls, giants, and wolves hanging around a much beachier and more literally concrete environment than ice-ridden frost giant hangouts or Asgardian halls.

The main characters are not the usual major players of the Norse pantheon, which gives the author some room to move in the whole end of the Aesir scenario.

Does read a bit like earlier work, but there are fun parts, particularly later on, with the 'bullshit your way unto Hel's death ship scenario'.

Then there's the odd fight: "The god collapsed with a soft squeak, his brains leaking from his crushed head"

All leading up to more of your traditional players making an appearance for the end of everything. Just a hell of a lot more monkeyboys and girls in the way as possible collateral damage, this time around.

Call it a 3.25.


3.5 out of 5

Wild Cards - 19 06 Political Science 101

Joker babies like rabbits and recruiting.


3 out of 5

Wild Cards - 19 05 An Abomination Of Desolation

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/wc-s.html

Investigating a nuking are Double Helix and Bugsy, and they run into SCARE.


3.5 out of 5

Wild Cards - 19 04 Just Cause 1

Worrying about the Curveball.


3.5 out of 5

Wild Cards - 19 03 The Sword Shall Never Depart From Thy House

Double Helix with an eye on the Nigerian situation, and Lohengrin's bed.


3.5 out of 5

Wild Cards - 19 02 Coulda

No missions for Bubbles.


3.5 out of 5

Wild Cards - 19 01 To the Hungry Soul Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet

Double Helix wonders about being a real girl.


3 out of 5

Shanna - The Mist On the Moor

A grumpy, wet, tired, injured horse, swearing Shanna ends up begging for shelter - but doesn't bargain on a supernatural testing.


3.5 out of 5

Shanna - The Sword Slave

Shanna takes a dim view of ritual sacrifice of her friends.


3.5 out of 5

Shanna - Sword Of Yraine

Shanna's first use of a real sword involving defending a temple from a gang of kidnapping virgin priestess despoilers.


4 out of 5

Sherlock Holmes S - Mrs Vamberry Takes A Trip

The Grand Siecle comfort case.


3.5 out of 5

John Justin Mallory - The Amorous Broom

A very needy object that won't leave John Justin Mallory alone.


3.5 out of 5

Diogenes Club - The Big Fish

One PI, one Esoteric Order of Dagon, a couple of Jungle Queens, the Diogenes club, and a WWII secret war.


4 out of 5

Zorro Pastiche - Out Of the Night When the Full Moon Is Bright

A werefox inspiration for the Zorro legend meets a black writer, during a police poor purge.


4 out of 5

Palos - 1 Palos Of the Dog Star Pack

A bloke, with a bit of help from an Asian guru learns to astral travel - even as far as other planets.

He met such a handy guy in Melbourne, fo all places, Dr Nikola-style. A hotbed of strange mindpower characters, it seems.

This is of World War 1 vintage, and sort of reads like it. Pulp adventure, not really at all.

Lots of pomp and drapery description as far as the kings and princess etc. that our hero meets on the new world, in his travels.

When there's a military problem to be solved, rather than strapping on a sword and leading a fleet of the locals into battle a la Carter, he's a bit more practical.

He can also travel back and forth to Earth pretty easily, immaterial style. Hence, his solution is a lot more Corwinian, or Pellucidarian, if you like. Try and make heaps of guns, win the armaments race.


2.5 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0801...

Polaris - 1 Polaris Of the Snows

Lord of the Ice, not of the Jungle, as a young man sets out on journey after the death of his father.

Like Tarzan, Polaris' mother died young, and he has grown up in isolation. No animal families, though, as he i sfully grown by the time his father departs.

No lions or tigers, but plenty of huskies and polars bears and killer whales for opponents, and presumably the odd walrus, given what he feeds his teams.

On his journey he finds fighting humans, and a woman - Americans, of course, like his father.

That's not all though, as looking after this new flower of fhumanity and taking her with he him, he finds a trail in the snow, leading to the land of Sardanes.

Which is dogless, much much warmer, and a fair bit ancient greek.

The leadership doesn't take too kindly to impressive strangers and their notions of democracy, though.

Also, given the population is carefully managed by disposal by fire of the elderly and children that are disabled, deformed, or not healthy.

Luckily Polaris' good nature does win him a couple of friends, but he is a dangerous man to be around, for human, or for beast.

Wild men, of course, have to go and try out civilisation sometime, and find rivals there.

All reasonable enough.


3 out of 5

Update - With Great Power

Just found this :-

ON THE HORIZON FOR LOU ANDERS:

“With Great Power”, an anthology of superhero fiction by writers with a foot in both prose and comics. Forthcoming from Solaris.

(Assuming Solaris is still around?) So this is a maybe, I guess.

http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2008/12/fantasy-book-critics-2008-review2009_18.html

Update - Shanna Of Sharteyn

Diana L. Paxson has kindly supplied the complete list of stories about her sword and sorcery heroine

1."Sword of Yraine" SWORD & SORCERESS I, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW 1984)
2."Shadow Wood" SWORD & SORCERESS II, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l985)
3."Sky Sister" MOONSINGER'S FRIENDS, ed. Susan Shwartz (Bluejay, l985)
4."The Mist on the Moor" SWORD & SORCERESS III, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l986)
5."The Dark Mother" SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS IV, ed. Andrew Offutt (Zebra, l979)
6."The Servant of Saibel" AMAZING, December 1984 (ed. George Scithers)
7."Blood Dancer" SWORD & SORCERESS IV, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l987)
8."The Eye of Toyur" SWORD & SORCERESS V, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l988)
9."Equona's Mare" SWORD & SORCERESS VI, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l989)
10."The Swordslave" SWORD & SORCERESS VII, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l990)
11."Ytarra's Mirror" SWORD & SORCERESS VIII, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l991)
12."Stopthrust" SWORD & SORCERESS IX,ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l992)
13."Falcon's Shadow" SWORD & SORCERESS X, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW, l993)

Update - Black and White

http://www.bscreview.com/2009/05/synergy-back-in-the-day-gems/

"Jackie Kessler - Even though I read tons as a child (and God knows, I still do), it was actually my love of comic books that got me into superheroes — which, in turn, led to me writing the dystopian superhero novel Black and White (June 2, 2009, Bantam Spectra) with Caitlin Kittredge."

Kate Daniels - Promises Promises

"I plucked a creased note from the table. Eight weeks ago, Curran, the Beast Lord of Atlanta, the lord and master of over fifteen hundred shapeshifters, and my personal psycho sat in the kitchen of my apartment in Atlanta and wrote out a menu on this piece of paper. I’d lost a bet to him, and according to the terms, I owed him one naked dinner. He’d added a disclaimer to the menu, explaining that he’d settle for bra and panties, since he wasn’t a complete beast, an assertion very open to debate.

He’d set a date, November 15th, which was today. I knew this because I had checked the calendar three times now. I called him that evening and set the place. my house near Savannah, and the time, five p.m. It was eight thirty now."


4 out of 5

http://ilona-andrews.com/index.php/2009/05/15/promises-promises/

Wild Cards Dealing With Aces and Jokers - Ric Croxton

In-depth podcast discussion of the first 12 books of the series.


5 out of 5

http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebookcave/Book_Cave_ep_009.mp3

Shadow Unit - 2 03 The Sin Eater

Inter-team trouble and a university being gamma stalked, along with re-Chaz-ing.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.shadowunit.org/sineater.html